Post 4

Article: "Breast ironing tradition targeted in Cameroon"
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/07/27/cameroon.breast.ironing/


This article outlines one drastic way mothers are attacking the threat of teenage pregnancy: "ironing" their daughters' breasts in order to make them less desirable to males. A report in Cameroon reported that one four girls suffer from this tragic abuse. Girls often suffer from physical pain, burns, and deformities, but they are also often traumatized.
Mothers certainly need to do all in their power to keep their daughters in school and to prevent them from becoming pregnant at a young age, but abuse is certainly not the answer. Sex education is the answer, for both mothers and daughters. Mothers need to be educated on the safety and health concerns of breast ironing, and daughters must be exposed to information to prevent teenage pregnancy.
This issue recently came out into the public eye when a German NGO brought it out into the light in 2006. However, this is the first time I had ever heard or read about this atrocity.  The article focuses on educating women and girls about sex; however the males in the community need to be educated as well.  Educating women is empowering and well-intentioned, but without educating the males, only partial headway can be made.  The more men learn about safe sex practices, the less stigmatized the use of condoms and other birth control will become, and perhaps then the rate of teenage pregnancy would go down, and girls would not have to endure the hot searing pain of a rod flattening their breasts. 

Post 3

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/07/officials-trying-to-identify-enslaved-disabled-workers-rescued-from-brick-kiln/


This article outlines a recent struggle the Chinese government is having in identifying 30 workers rescued from a brick kiln where they had been enslaved.  One of the reasons why identifying the victims is so difficult in this case is that many of them have mental illnesses or are disabled, according to the police.  Over the past 3 years, more than 1,500 people have been rescued from illegal brick kilns in China, but reports show that more than 53,000 people still work at these types of kilns.
This article outlines two atrocities in the world: forced labor, and the abuse of people with mental illnesses.  Populations that are weaker tend to be preyed on by traffickers and slave-owners. These populations include the poor, the young, the elderly, and those with mental illnesses. 
Governments need to crack down on all forms of modern-day slavery, whether it is in the brick kilns or on the street corners.  If studies can find 53,000 people working in illegal brick kilns, how many more are actually in China, or even the rest of the world?  Action is needed. 

Different approaches, similar goals. (Post 2)

            According to CNN’s article “The battle against sex trafficking: Sweden vs. Denmark”, these two European countries are taking a stand against sex trafficking and promoting women’s rights, but in opposite fashions.  Denmark is infamous for the red light district.  There, prostitution is legalized in hopes that it would be easier to manage.  Sweden, on the other hand, utilizes a totally different approach.   The act of selling sex is technically legal, however, the act of buying is criminalized in hopes to decrease the demand

            However, the problem seems to be getting worse in Denmark, but improving in Sweden.  Countries are now looking at Sweden as a model of new thinking about how to destroy this modern day slavery of sex trafficking.  Questions have been raised over what countries will adopt this style of combating trafficking as well as if it will be as effective as in Sweden.  Despite these apprehensions, the important thing is that governments are seeing the importance and nefariousness of sex trafficking and taking a stand against it.

For the full article, please visit: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/30/sex-trafficking-countries-take-different-approaches-to-same-problem/